Shimla, Jan 9 : Eleven more employees of a Chinese company have been granted visas to speed up the construction of two major World Bank-funded roads in Himachal Pradesh, a minister said here Saturday.

"Indian authorities have granted visas to 11 more employees of Longjian Road and Bridge Company Ltd of China to accelerate construction of two major road projects in the state. These projects have already been much delayed due to shortage of manpower," Public Works Minister Gulab Singh Thakur told reporters.

Work on the Mehatpur-Una-Amb and Theog-Kotkhai-Hatkoti-Rohru road projects had come to a standstill after Chinese nationals were forced to return to their country in the last week of September after India's new visa policy came into effect. Under the policy, the Chinese are not allowed to work in the country on business visas.

The company had restarted the work on both the road projects early last month when 11 employees were again granted visas by the Indian government.

"With the grant of visas to more employees of the company, the road construction work would be expedited," Thakur said.

The Rs. 354 crore contract for two roads, 125 km-long was awarded in June 2008 and they were to be completed by November 2010. However, less than 10 percent of the total work has been completed so far.

"The company's director has promised to speed up the execution work. Now they will definitely cover the backlog," the minister said. (IANS)